Beyond the Boundaries

Life and Landscape at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, 1840-1875

Larry Lankton

Beyond the Boundaries

Life and Landscape at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, 1840-1875

Larry Lankton

Description

Spanning the years 1840-1875, Beyond the Boundaries focuses on the settlement of Upper Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, telling the story of reluctant pioneers who attempted to establish a decent measure of comfort, control, and security in what was in many ways a hostile environment. Moving beyond the technological history of the period found in his previous book Cradle to the Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines (OUP 1991), Lankton here focuses on the people of this region and how the copper mining affected their daily lives.

A truly first-rate social history, Beyond the Boundaries will appeal to historians of the frontier and of Michigan and the Great Lakes region, as well as historians of technology, labor, and everyday life.

Beyond the Boundaries

Life and Landscape at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, 1840-1875

Larry Lankton

Table of Contents

1. Water, Woods, and Winter: A Special Sense of Place2. Heaving Up Jonah: The Travail of Travel3. Settling In: Camps, Communities, Houses, and Hotels4. A Lapful of Apples: Foodways in the Far North5. Keeping House: All the Work of the Family6. Tasks at Hand: Making a Living: Men and Women, Boys and Girls7. Saints and Scholars: Village Churches and Schools8. The Sins of the Body: Maladies, Medicines, and Frontier Physicians9. Ice Carnivals, Camels, and Sunday Trombones: Pioneer Pastimes10. Shattered Hopes and Broken Prospects: Lunatics, Larcenists, and Lives of Woe11. Transformations: A Long-Lived Frontier

Beyond the Boundaries

Life and Landscape at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, 1840-1875

Larry Lankton

Author Information

Larry Lankton is Professor of History at Michigan Technological University. His previous publications include Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines (OUP 1991), winner of the 1992 Great Lakes History Prize.

Beyond the Boundaries

Life and Landscape at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, 1840-1875

Larry Lankton

Reviews and Awards

"The social history of the mining frontier should be written and researched as well as Larry Lankton's Beyond the Boundaries....The book is a treat to read and a worthy contribution to helping us understand frontier mining societies."--Mining History News

"To tell his story, the author has mined diaries, manuscripts, newspapers, and company records, as well as a wealth of other primary and secondary literature. What emerges is a richly textured story that Lankton recounts with authority and gusto. It is a book that will interest local historians and those whose focus is social or western history."--Labor History

"With clarity, precision, and sound scholarship, Lankton examines everyday life on the Keweenaw fronteir from 1840-1875, the years of growing pains for the infant copper industry...Lankton describes with vivid detail the tedious day of a hard rock miner...Beyond the Boundaries is local history at its best. Lankton has provided a scholarly look at early life on the copper range in Michigan amid the transformation of a wilderness. the net of topics is widely thrown, but Lankton articulates everyday life based on the facts and with eloquent interpretation...Beyond the Boundaries belongs on the shelf of every library in Michigan next to its copy of Cradle to Grave."--Michigan Historical Review